Triple bill

First up today: Tuli , a film by Philippines director Auraeus Solito, who's debut feature The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros screened at last year's Festival (I think it was last year's but the years get a bit mixed up!). Anyway, this was a strange and sweet film about a girl in a Filipino village, growing up as the daughter of the local village circumciser, who is also a drunk and generally a real asshole. The film includes views of simple village life and the story plays out to a happy ending. I'm looking forward to seeing more from this filmmaker. I really enjoy his storytelling.

Secondly was These Girls, quite a short documentary focusing on the life of a bunch of girls living on the streets of Cairo. These are different to our streetkids though - vastly different. The law does nothing to protect the girls from rape and kidnapping - the local guys make a habit of this and leave the girls scarred on their faces as a sign they have been “marked”. The girls bring up their babies on the streets. It was pretty grim, but getting to hear the girls’ stories made you realise that life on the streets is preferable to being beaten by their fathers back home.




Lastly, experimental film by Leighton Peirce. Explorations of Folded Time is a collection of painterly domestic macro-moments – slices of small moments of beauty, slowed down and repeated and lush with emotion. His children are observed in small detail - hands in water, small gaudy indistinct figures running down the back stairs. Sound is amplified and detailed. I smiled often during this screening, with the sweetness and beauty of the unfolding images. Just gorgeous. Quite a few people walked out. Why do people go to experimental cinema and not know what they are in for?!

Phew - pretty tired now. A few hours of work now then off to bed. Three films tomorrow.